Uppsala Temple
The Temple of Uppsala was a presumed temple building in Old Uppsala , which is said to have represented the center of the pagan belief of the Svear .
history
The most important source for the existence of the temple is Adam von Bremen , who wrote in his chronicle in 1070: “ The mighty temple of Uppsala was still in its place in the sixties of the 11th century, although Olof Skötkonung had already destroyed it half a century earlier had planned. It consisted of a completely gilded building with images of the pagan gods enthroned in it. "
Adam von Bremen was never there himself. His entire report was based on conversations with the Danish King Sven Estridsson and on information he received from ambassadors at the Danish court, the reliability of which is doubtful, especially since King Olof Skötkonung had ordered all pagan shrines to be destroyed half a century earlier. Other old legends, especially about the temple in Uppsala, indicate that it was burned down around 1088 by the followers of Inges I. With all that is known today about the Svear Feast of Sacrifice, the “temple” may have been in the open on a sacred meadow. There is no archaeological evidence of a temple. The remains of longhouses have been found in the vicinity of the royal hills of Old Uppsala . It is possible that wooden figures of gods were housed in part of the longhouses. On the other hand, they could only have been set up during the festival of sacrifice.
The foundations under the current church in Old Uppsala that have been found may as well have been an earlier church or a barn or temple. The building, however, was not particularly magnificent and more modest than what Carl Larsson depicted in his painting. What is known today about the pagan sacrifice ( blot ), the Svear and that time, suggests that the word "temple" could just as well have meant a place outside a building in a sacred grove or at a spring.
In the background of the mural Midvinterblot by Carl Larsson , which can be seen in the National Museum in Stockholm , the painter has depicted the imaginary temple. In the picture the Svear sacrifice their King Domalde .
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Henrik Janson: "Pictured by the Other: Classical and Early Medieval Perspectives on Religions in the North", in: The Pre-Christian Religions of the North: Research and Reception, ed. By Margaret Clunies Ross, Volume I: From the Middle Ages to c. 1850, Turnhout: Brepols 2018, pp. 7-40.